Lesson Plan
Lesson plan Level 1 Beginner/Elementary CEF: A1
A Little Trouble in Dublin
Richard MacAndrew
Aims ■
To make students interested in the book.
■
To think about the types of events that might happen in an adventure story.
■
To learn more about some of the characters charac ters in the story and their relationship relationship with each e ach other.
NB You may �nd that many o the activities described below can be exploited better in your students’ own language or mother tongue, i you speak it. Te mother tongue, i used careully as a resource, can acilitate your students’ progress in English and help them to understand the context o the story, thus preparing them to understand it better when they read it.
Pre-reading Activities 1 ell students the title o the book is A Little Little Troub Trouble le in Dublin. Write a list o types o stories (genres) on the board (e.g. murder mystery, comedy, science �ction, romance, adventure). Discuss these with students to ensure they know what they all are. Students now look at Illustration 1. Ask What do you see? Suggested answers: two people (a boy and a girl) running away rom a building at night, money.
Now ask What genre do you think A Little rouble in Dublin is? Dublin is? Answer: Adventure.
2 Ask students to look at Extract 1, a list o people in the story, and Illustration 1. Working in pairs, students try to guess something that happens in the story. Tey should write their ideas on small pieces o paper. Feedback to the whole class and help students to stick their pieces o paper up so that similar ideas are next to each other. How different are the ideas? 3 Ask students to read Extract 2 and to look at Illustration 2. alk about what is happening (a shop assistant reuses to accept Mary’s €20 note as he says it’s orged). Look back at the ideas or Activity 2. Did anyone think the story was about orged money? Cambridge Discovery Readers
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© Cambridge University Universit y Press 2010
4 alk brie�y to students about bank notes. What sort o images do they have on them? Suggested answer: images o people or places that are important to a country or group o countries.
Give students a piece o paper the size o a bank note and ask them to design a new note. Stick the notes up and give them all a number. Now ask students to vote or or their three avouri avourite te designs. NB Students must not vote or their own bank note. Which is the most popular design?
5 ell students that in A in A Little Little Troub Trouble le in Dublin Dublin,, Mary visits a museum shop. Divide the class into two teams and ask each team to write up a list o items they think are on sale in a museum shop. Tey give each item a price (in euros). Tis price should be a whole number (e.g. €13, not €13.55). eams now swap lists. Give each team two minutes to memorise the list o items and their prices. At the end o the two minutes, the winning team is the team that remembers the most items and their prices accurately. 6 Ask students to read Extract 3. Discuss what is happening in the extract. Suggested answer: Andy and Mary are ollowing a man in Dublin. Te man goes into a house. Andy wants to leave, but Mary wants to wait longer. Andy isn’t isn’t happy, but he doesn’ d oesn’tt want to leave his sister. Tey wait another 30 minutes.
Now ask students to imagine that Andy does decide does decide to say what he thinks about waiting. Tey should write a ew lines to continue the dialogue between the brother and sister, to show how they are both eeling. Students share their dialogue with a partner or the whole class.
7 Ask students to discuss with a partner what happens to Mary and Andy afer Extract 3 ends. Feedback to the whole class. 8 Students think o a place they know well and imagine they are ollowing someone. Ask them to list possible hiding places (e.g. caés, trees, etc.). Next, ask them to think about how they would eel i they were ollowing someone (e.g. rightened, www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreader www.cambridge.org/elt/dis coveryreaderss
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nervous). Finally, ask them to write a simple scene as in Extract 3, where they ollow someone. Tey should try to show what the place is like and how they eel as well as what is happening.
9 Ask students to look at Illustration 3 and to discuss with a partner. What do they think is happening and why? Answer: Andy and Mary are trying to escape rom the two men in the picture by putting their hands over their eyes so they can’t see while the car is moving (although you may wish to let the students �nd this out by reading the book).
10 Students think o a caption or the Illustration 3 and share these with the whole class.
Post-reading Activities 1 Ask students to complete the sentence: Te thing I liked best about A Little Trouble in Dublin was … 2 Ask students to make a change to the story to provide an entirely different ending. Feedback to the whole class. How similar are the ideas? 3 Game – How well do you know me? Place the class in groups o three – Student 1 is Mary, Student 2 is Andy and Student 3 is the questioner. Student 3 secretly writes three questions about Mary and three questions about Andy (e.g. At a restaurant, does Mary choose a burger, a pizza or a salad? ). Student 3 then asks Student 1 the three questions about Mary without Student 2 being present and notes the answer. Student 2 then returns and Student 3 asks him the same three questions about Mary. Student 2 gets a point or every answer that is the same as Student 1’s. Now repeat the above, but this time with Student 3 asking Student 2 questions about Andy while Student 1 is out o the room.
4 Write a 100-word story or a Dublin newspaper about Mary and Andy’s adventures.
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Extract 1
My notes
People in the story Andy Lawson: a thirteen-year-old boy; Mary Lawson’s twin brother Mary Lawson: a thirteen-year-old girls: Andy Lawson’s twin sister Miss O’Brien: Andy and Mary’s science teacher Mr Green Shirt: Mary sees this man in a shop Mr Blue Shirt: a riend o Mr Green Shirt Inspector Helen Forrester: a Dublin police officer Sergeant Tom Brady: A Dublin Police offi cer. Extract 2
‘I can’t take this,’ said the shop assistant. ‘Why not?’ asked Mary. ‘It’s not a real €20 note,’ he answered. ‘It’s orged – it’s not real. Look here.’ He ound a new €20 note and put it on the shop window. Ten he put Mary’s note next to it. ‘Look on the lef o the note,’ the assistant told Mary. ‘You can see a kind o window on the real note, but there isn’t one on yours. Yours is orged.’ Extract 3
Mary watched the man. He turned right. Andy and Mary ran afer him and turned right too. ‘Don’t get too near him,’ said Mary. ‘We don’t want him to see us.’ For ten minutes they walked about �fy metres behind the man. First there was rinity College on their lef, then the National Gallery on their right. Next came Merrion Square. Tere were houses round the square, and trees and gardens in it. Te man walked up to the ront door o a house, opened the door and went in. ‘OK,’ said Andy. ‘We can go back now. We’ve still got time to get to the cinema. Te �lm actually starts at hal past �ve.’ ‘No,’ said Mary and took him by the arm. ‘We’re going to wait in the gardens.’ ‘Why?’ asked Andy. We can’t see him.’ ‘But what’s he doing there?’ asked Mary. ‘I want to know.’ Andy was angry, but he didn’t say anything. ‘I can’t leave my sister here,’ he thought. Tey waited and they waited. Afer thirty minutes Andy said, ‘Come on, Mary. He’s not coming out again.’ ‘Just �ve more minutes,’ said Mary. ‘Please, Andy.’ Cambridge Discovery Readers
© Cambridge University Press 2010
www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders
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Illustration 1
My notes Cambridge Discovery Readers
A Little Trouble in Dublin Richard MacAndrew
CEF
A1
Illustration 2
Cambridge Discovery Readers
© Cambridge University Press 2010
www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders
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Illustration 3
Cambridge Discovery Readers
My notes
© Cambridge University Press 2010
www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders
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